Development of visiMax® Mobile, an Easy to Transport Visual Simulator

—Strengthening appeal when making presentations to clients by lining up an architectural VR (virtual reality) presentation display system—

January 15, 2014Takenaka Corporation

Takenaka Corporation (President: Masahiro Miyashita) has developed a mobile wide angle of vision visual simulator, visiMax Mobile, that our clients can use to create a virtual reality (VR) experience of the interior and exterior of a building at the design stage.
For the time being, it will be used regularly to present clients with Takenaka proposals to strengthen their appeal, distinguishing us from our competitors.

Takenaka developed the fixed type presentation system using visiMax, the world’s first visualization tool, and has successfully used it many times.
Image display technology and technology and know-how used to prepare the contents displayed play important roles in our ability to effectively use visiMax as both a fixed and mobile tool.

Takenaka also achieved the practical application of VR presentation technologies powered by three-dimensional game technologies※1 ahead of its competitors. It also built up a stock of simple and speedy building VR presentation contents preparation methods using new three-dimensional game technology※2, and is counting on using it in various ways as an easily understood explanation tool possible by freely shifting the viewers’ perspective just as if they are playing a 3D game when giving a wide range of presentations including design, construction plans, city plans, etc. of buildings and development plans.

※1 UNREAL® Development Kit from Epic Games of the U.S.

※2 UNITY® of Unity Technologies of the U.S.

External view of visiMax Mobile

Benefits of visiMax Mobile

1.

Compact and lightweightUsing the most advanced image projection equipment and image-making technologies has achieved performance equal to that of the earlier fixed visiMax while achieving sharp reductions in size and weight to 50 kg requiring storage space equal to three suitcases.

2.

Portable and easy to set up and removeIt can be carried to a customer’s office by two people in a passenger car or taxi, then set up to prepare for projection in about 15 minutes and finally easily disassembled and removed in about 10 minutes.

3.

Only a space four meters square is needed for projectionOnly about four square meters of floor space is needed to quickly set up the stand-alone automatically opening air dome screen to create an ideal projection environment. Fish-eye projection on three interior wall surfaces of an ordinary conference room (three white wall surfaces laid out like the letter U) lets the system show its spatial projection sensation, which is the major strong point of visiMax.

Equipment and software of visiMax Mobile

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Image-making software developed by Takenaka for high-speed creation of plane surface perspective images on the three-dimensional curves without any distortion.

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A special fish-eye projector that can project superwide-angle high resolution on a spherical screen.

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High-performance notebook PC to permit high-speed three-dimensional graphics during display of a presentation.

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Mobile curved screen achieved by developing a special compact lightweight completely light-shielded air dome with diameter of four meters.